HARRY KANE was denied a winner by VAR with ten seconds of injury time remaining as Spurs old boy Marcus Edwards finally had his big night in Tottenham.
Sporting forward Edwards, who joined Spurs as an eight-year-old but never made a senior appearance, scored a stunner midway through the first half.
Rodrigo Bentancur levelled with ten minutes to go through a header.
Kane then thought he had spared Antonio Conteâs blushes completely with a strike in the fifth minute of stoppage time which would have seen his side qualify for the Champions League knockout stages.
But VAR ruled the strike out for a narrow offside meaning Spurs blew their chance of reaching the last 16.
That denies Conte the chance to rest weary key players Harry Kane, Eric Dier, Son Heung-min and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg in Marseille on Tuesday.
And the way Spurs are stuttering right now – plus the fact Marseille dominated them in the first half of Septemberâs clash in England – means a result on the French riviera is by no means guaranteed.
The hosts have looked leggy of late and it was the same again last night.
A relentless fixture schedule has obviously played a huge part.
But their lack of invention under Conte in recent fixtures is provoking grumbles in the terraces – and there were plenty of those here.
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Edwards was once likened to Lionel Messi by former Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino for his ability on the ball.
But such praise was always going to be impossible to live up to and in 2019 he left the club permanently for Portuguese side Vitoria de Guimaraes.
Sporting liked enough of what they saw to sign him in January and since then he has improved so much that his manager Ruben Amorim has tipped him for England.
That Messi comparison did not seem quite so outlandish during the reverse fixture in September.
Sporting won that game 2-0 thanks to two late goals – inflicting Spursâ first loss of the season in all competitions.
But the most thrilling moment came towards the end of the first half when Edwards emulated the Argentine genius by dribbling past Eric Dier, Ivan Perisic and Cristian Romero, only to be denied a wondergoal by Hugo Llorisâ save.
This time round though, he did get to feel the ecstasy of finding the net against his old side.
On 22 minutes his moment came as he outmuscled Hojbjerg in midfield before letting fly with a low drive outside the area which nestled beautifully in the corner, giving Lloris no chance.
Spurs offered little in response, with Son eventually firing a shot towards the far corner that was easily held by Antonio Adan.
The whole of Sportingâs bench were off their seats shortly before half-time when captain Sebastian Coates had the ball in the Spursâ net again.
But Dutch referee Danny Makkelie had spotted the ex-Liverpool man had cheekily handled the ball and promptly booked him instead.
Spurs looked badly in need of some half-time inspiration, summed up when an awful free-kick routine saw Son fail to control a routine pass from Rodrigo Bentancur and slip to the turf.
Boos rang out at the break not only in frustration of the scoreline off the back of two losses but for another lacklustre, tired display.
If Conte did rant and rave at the break it seemed to do little to improve his sideâs performance, although they did up the urgency.
Dier did fire a stinging volley in anger but Adan was equal to the task.
While Spurs were lucky not to be caught out on the break when ex-Wolves man Francisco Trincao blazed over from a tight angle.
Cristian Romero has a hothead reputation anyway but was positively seething in this environment, copping a caution for launching himself into a challenge on Paulinho.
As a rare chance went begging when Adan denied Matt Doherty low at his near post, Conte knew he had to change things up.
Yet with Richarlison and Dejan Kulusevski injured, he was forced to turn to Spanish youngster Bryan Gil, a player he has rarely used at all this season.
Sub Nazinho blew two great chances to kill Tottenham off, first seeing a shot repelled by Lloris and then firing wide of an open goal on the rebound.
Those misses proved costly as Bentancur headed home Ivan Perisicâs corner with ten minutes to go.
Sporting old boy Dier should have won it but somehow headed wide from five yards in the 90th minute.
Spur thought they had their winner when Kane fired in from Emerson Royalâs knockdown – only for VAR to ruin the wild celebrations.
